Fred says the Bush admin “overlawyered” the DC gun case

BryanPosted at 2:30 pm on January 16, 2008

It gets tough to blog about Fred. For the front page thumbnail do I choose a shot of red meat or a shot of Marblehead himself? Hard to lose either way, actually. And if I can find a messianic shot, well, I have to use that.

The Fred Thompson for President, South Carolina bus tour reached Spartanburg today, where the Law & Order TV star candidate fielded questions at Papa’s Breakfast Nook from Charlotte, N.C.’s WBT-AM radio talk show host Jeff Katz.

Asked his opinion of the Second Amendment and the Solicitor General’s request that the DC Circuit Court remand the appeal back to the trial court for “fact-finding”, the lawyer turned Senator from Tennessee said the Bush Administration was “overlawyering” and stated that he opposed remand and that the case should move forward to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Right on the money answer to a question that’s tailor-made and perfectly timed for the South Carolina primary. And a perfect way for Fred (and the other candidates, if they so choose) to distance themselves from the Bush administration without alienating conservatives or seeming to appease the left in any way.

It’s not the first time Fred has weighed on in Heller, so he can’t be accused of pandering. He’s saying what he actually believes.

The District argued, as many gun-control advocates do, that these words only guarantee a collective “right” to bear arms while serving the government. The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected this approach and instead adopted an “individual rights” view of the Second Amendment. The D.C. Circuit is far from alone. The Fifth Circuit and many leading legal scholars, including the self-acknowledged liberal Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe, have also come to adopt such an individual rights view.

I’ve always understood the Second Amendment to mean what it says – it guarantees a citizen the right to “keep and bear” firearms, and that’s why I’ve been supportive of the National Rifle Association’s efforts to have the DC law overturned.